New Delhi: A 38-year man has been arrested for allegedly sexually attacking school girls by catching them by saying that he has been sent by their parents for giving them some items or others in east Delhi’s New Ashok Nagar area, police said today.

Sunil Rastogi was under arrest on Saturday on the basis of tip off, DCP (East) Omvir Singh said.

“The accused said to the police that he used to target minor girls. Whenever he would find any minor girl going to home from school, he used to misrepresent her on the pretext that her father had sent some clothes or some other articles to give her and take her to an lonely place,” he added.

According to a report in Indian Express the man said to the cops that he tried to sexually assault 600 girls.

The respondent works as a tailor and is married with five children, including three girls, said another officer, adding that his daughters are being counselled to know whether he had also targeted them.

On January 10, two cases of kidnapping were recorded in New Ashok Nagar police station wherein complainants alleged a man misled their daughters, aged 10 and 9, said the officer.

The respondent allegedly took them on the stairs of a building and fled when they elevated an alarm, he said.

Previous, on December 13 also, a case under sections 376 (Punishment for rape) and 506 (Punishment for illegal intimidation) of IPC and section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act was recorded on the statement of a minor girl, said the officer.

He said from the time when all the three cases had a similar pattern, it was assumed that the same person was involved in all of them and investigations were taken up.

“In all the three cases, wounded were minors in the age group of 9-10 and it was also exposed that the accused first misrepresented the minors by telling them that their father had given some clothes or articles for them and then he took them to lonely place where he allegedly tried to sexually attack them,” said the officer.

A team under inspector CR Meena, SHO, New Ashok Nagar police station, and ACP (Kalyanpuri) Rahul Alwal took up the investigation.

CCTV footages from cameras installed near the places of happenings were obtained and some images of the accused were established, said Singh.

During interrogation, he acknowledged he committed the alleged wrongdoings and also exposed he committed similar felonies with other girls in New Ashok Nagar, Delhi, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), and Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), said by the officer.

It has also been exposed from interrogation that many cases including under NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) and of theft and molestation were recorded against the accused at several police stations in Rudrapur, Delhi and Ghaziabad.

Rastogi is a permanent occupant of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and came to the Delhi in 1990 with his family and left Delhi in 2004.

“He resides in Rudrapur now. He studied up to fifth standard at government school in his village. He is being cross-examined regarding other offences dedicated by him at different places,” added the officer.